Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid clash over nuclear option

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Sunday signaled that the Senate remains headed toward a historic remake of its rules this week to ease the confirmation of some of President Barack Obama’s nominations.

Reid said Sunday on NBC's “Meet the Press” that he’s faced historic delay and obstruction during his time as majority leader, fighting hundreds of filibusters, including 16 of the president’s executive branch nominees. The Nevada Democrat said it’s time for that to end.

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“The changes we’re making are very, very minimal. What we’re doing is saying: ‘Look American people, shouldn’t President Obama have somebody working for him that he wants?’” Reid said. “If you want to look at nominations, you know what the Founding Fathers said: ‘Simple majority.’ That’s what we need to do.”

Reid is set to deploy the “nuclear option” — which would allow 51 senators to change the Senate rules instead of the 67 that are normally required. Triggering it would dislodge several stalled Obama nominees, and it would allow senators to approve executive branch nominees — not judicial nominees or legislation — by a simple majority.

Creating 60-vote thresholds and months-long delays to nominees to monitor the nation’s labor standards, air quality and financial regulations is precisely why Americans’ view of Congress is so dim, Reid said.

“Is there anyone out there in the real world that believes that what is going on in the Congress of the United States is good? Our approval rating is lower than North Korea’s. It is really, really dismal,” he said.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is still hoping to avert fundamental changes to the Senate. After saying that Reid might go down as the worst leader of the chamber on Thursday if Democrats enact a rules change, McConnell tempered his remarks Sunday and complimented Reid as a “reasonable man” and a “good majority leader.”

But McConnell also made it clear that he believes there is no reason to weaken the minority party’s power in the Senate.

“What is the problem here? The president has had 1,540 of his nominations confirmed, only four defeated. He’s not lost a single member of the cabinet. He’s getting them faster than President Bush was at the same time in his second term,” McConnell said. “The majority leader needs to bring these nominees up. Most of them are going to be confirmed.”

The crux of the filibuster fight is over nominees to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Labor Relations Board, which will be unable to function after August without Senate action as Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce’s term expires. Republicans want structural changes to the CFPB before confirming a director and resolution at the Supreme Court over recess appointments made by a Obama to the NLRB. Until that plays out, the GOP is unlikely to vote with Democrats on those confirmations.

The majority also wants to approve nominees to head the Labor Department, Environmental Protection Agency and Export-Import Bank.